Definition of petty bourgeois in English:

noun

Arcand's film expresses a mood of those overwhelmed, morally decomposing Quebec petty bourgeois who have groped their way, however reluctantly or hesitantly, toward a new orientation based on power and wealth.

‘Oppressed woman’ does not adequately sum Alma up: she is also a spoiled petty bourgeois with more than a trace of anti-Semitism in her blood, a victimizer as well as a victim.

While the inner-city lumpen layers and the well-heeled, suburban petty bourgeois seem to represent opposite poles in American society, their social existence is similar in certain respects.